Overwatch Hero Updates 11/16/17 REVIEW

Chicken Butt. Do I have your attention? Good, because Overwatch has released a new patch the other day November 16, and it certainly changes gameplay more than you think, specifically for support characters.

Just making sure you’re still paying attention

The biggest change comes from the addition of the new support character, Moira.

Moira is a Talon agent with both regenerative and degenerative powers. Her main ability is either releasing a healing spray to heal allies in the range of the spray, or release a beam that will drain the health of the opponent it is hitting. She is also able to release Biotic orbs of the healing or decaying power that will hover around the area for a little while. Her ultimate ability, called Coalescence, creates a beam of both materials that heal allies that hits and damages the opponents, this beam can also bypass enemies barriers, but is not able to go through natural walls.
She also has the ability to Phase. She can jump in the direction she is moving, similar to Tracer’s ability, avoiding damage.
Now while, she has unlimited ammo for her degenerative beam, he regenerative beam has a tank that can be emptied out relatively quickly. She can refill this tank by either waiting it out and not using the healing ability, or by using her degenerative beam. This beam will not only sap the life of her opponents, but both fill up her healing gauge, and heal Moira herself.
Now even though she was just released yesterday, I already see a nerf coming for her in the future. Specifically, on her healing ability. Let’s consider for a moment, the other support characters streaming healing abilities. Ana has a biotic shot that will heal about 75 damage before she has to reload. Lucio, heals 16.25 hp per second when you are near him. Zenyatta’s Orb of Harmony heals 30 hp per second. And Mercy’s healing stream revives 60 hp per second to a single ally. Moira’ healing spray heals 75 hp per second to all allies in range. This means she could heal two tanks, lets say Roadhog and D. VA who have the most health (600 and 400 respectively) back up to full health in less than 10 seconds assuming they were both close to dead, simultaneously. Her healing orb also heals just as quickly, though don’t last as long. This allows Moira to be the most effective healer in the game. While it’s true that Mercy can almost as well, Mercy is not a strong attacker, he main point is support. Moira on the other hand, has a decently strong attack that not only heals Moira herself, but allows her to heal her allies even more. This should put her on par with hero’s like Lucio or Zenyatta, but her healing is considerably more effective.

The next big change happened to Mercy.

You still there?

Mercy’s resurrect has been nerfed considerably. Instead of just bringing an ally back, it now takes about 1.75 seconds for Mercy to cast resurrect someone. On top of this, while she is casting, her movement speed has slowed down by about 75%, and she can be interrupted by being knocked back, stunned, or hacked. Though these changes are not applicable when Mercy is in her Valkyrie mode.
This has been met with mixed reviews by players. Most Mercy main’s I have talked to have hate the change, but I mean this isn’t surprising, considering nobody likes when their main gets nerfed.

And this is coming from a Roadhog main, quod erat demonstrandum

Though it is true, it makes it even more difficult for Mercy to support the team. Well timed resurrections are now near impossible. Mercy’s will have to be out of the action almost completely in order to bring back their ally. Now with the addition of Moira, this brings Mercy play ability down even more. Most have argued that with this change, the cool down on this ability should be brought down from 30 seconds to maybe 20.
From the other side of the aisle, some see the this as a needed change. Though it is true that the recharge time of this ability made it so it couldn’t be used too often, the change also now stops ill-timed resurrections. The amount of times I personally have been brought back by a Mercy, in the middle of fire fight that I wasn’t expecting, was probably at least 2-3 times a match. This resulted in me dying again almost immediately and the Mercy wasting her ability. From the enemy team, most enemy abilities have a way to counter, Mercy’s resurrection did not. With this nerf, it is now easier to handle a Mercy, making it more balanced for team play.

The other changes made are not as notable. Ana’s attack has increased to 60, Lucio displays whether he is in boost or heal mode when people are spectating, and Winston’s barrier now displays a health bar.

What do you think of the changes? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll let you know when Moira gets nerf’d